Morocco Day 6: Sunrise in the Desert and a Film Studio Tour

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This was another early morning. Mike and I woke up around 6:00 a.m. so we could climb a sandy dune and watch the sun rise over the desert. We were tired and the climb was steep, but it was so worth it.

We came back to camp and ate bread, pastries, crepes, eggs, orange juice and tea for breakfast. Then we rode our camels back to meet Mohammed at his SUV. This time we were linked with two other tourists during the camel ride, but once back to the car it was just the three of us again.

Along the way, Mohammed stopped at a souvenir shop and we tried our bargaining skills again. I eyed a bracelet but but their starting price was way more than we were hoping to spend, so that ended that. The man at the shop tried very hard to sell us a rug, but we said no dice.

We stopped for lunch (I had vegetarian couscous, Mike had vegetarian tagine, and we both agreed we were getting a little couscous and tagined-out.)

Moroccan bread is one of those things that looks deceptively simple but is actually way more delicious than the bread I'm used to eating. Since it was my once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon, I had no qualms about hitting the bread basket hard during the meals.

On our way back to Marrakech we stopped in Ouarzazate, a desert city known as the Hollywood of Morocco thanks to all the films that were filmed there. We took a tour of a film studio and saw the sets from the various movies filmed there, mostly biblical or epic movies. We'd walk down one hallway and see a room set up to look like Egypt and another hallway and find a room that looked like Jerusalem. Giant pillars were made of styrofoam and other props like massive stones were actually light enough to lift with one hand.

It took several extra hours to make it back home because we got stuck in a convoy of European students in VW bugs making their Spring Break trip to Morocco.

When we finally arrived home after 7, Jian made the most amazing meal — NOT couscous or tagine! — soup, salad, eggplant and tomatoes, bread and fried potato cakes, topped off by a sweet concoction with yogurt and bananas. Jian really spoiled us during our stay.

After a few days in the hot desert, a shower never felt better. We made it through about half of another animated movie (this time Wall-E) before falling asleep. At this point in the trip it was hard to believe it was coming to an end so soon.